The present invention relates to medical imaging equipment and in particular to ultrasound equipment adapted for use by operators untrained in conventional imaging.
Despite significant global effort mothers and newborns continue to die from preventable causes. One common example is hemorrhage from poor uterine tone due to obstructed labor (from fetal malpresentation, multiple gestation, etc.) or placenta over the cervix (placenta previa) A quick ultrasound exam establishes fetal presentation, number, size (gestational age), and placental location. Therefore, in high-income countries where the standard of pregnancy care includes at least one ultrasound exam, these potentially life-threatening situations are rarely a surprise.
In low- and middle-income countries, however, where both ultrasound systems and personnel trained in image acquisition and interpretation are a rarity, these conditions can be extremely dangerous. In such places, a simple diagnostic tool that is easily operated by the untrained user at the point of care could be literally life-saving. An example of a low-income country is Bangladesh, where most deliveries in rural areas (˜2/3) are attended by unskilled traditional birth attendants (TBAs, called Dais), and most of the others by (typically minimally skilled) nurses or midwives. Even in areas where skilled care is available, Dais are often preferred by rural women because they reside in the community, and are part of its social and cultural matrix. For this reason in the 1970s-90s the World Health Organization focused on training TBAs, but this practice has been abandoned because ultimately it had no effect on maternal death and minimal effect on peri/neonatal death. Reasons include the lack of imaging equipment; even the best trained providers cannot look inside the uterus without an appropriate device.
Technology that allows users untrained in ultrasound diagnostics to make point-of-care decisions would, in fact, be useful any place in the world where there is not immediate access to an ultrasound system and provider trained in its use; examples of this in the U.S.A. include places where rapid decisions are needed to provide optimal care, such as the site of an motor vehicle accident where emergency medical technicians must evaluate a pregnant woman, or a rural labor and delivery unit where nurses, but not radiology personnel, are in house.